177: Chapter 177 It's a difficult decision.

General Maitang immediately organized personnel from the US Central Command to analyze the situation in Syria, determine the latest trends, and decide on the countermeasures the Central Theater Command should take.

After some discussion, they concluded that since the Hera Joint Military Base's failure to attack Mayadin, its forces were severely depleted. It was impossible to hold the Hera Joint Military Base unless a large number of reinforcements were immediately dispatched to Syria.

However, the Central Theater Command currently did not have enough troops to deploy to Syria and could only draw them from other regions. The time required to redeploy these forces to Syria would be at least two months, and could even take as long as half a year.

Yet, the Hera Joint Military Base had no way to hold out against the current Syrian army for two months, let alone half a year. Sending reinforcements in such a manner would be meaningless, only resulting in the pointless consumption of the Hera Joint Military Base's forces.

Although General Maitang did not care about the attrition of the Hera Joint Military Base's forces, the time it would take to deploy reinforcements far exceeded the time it would take for Syria to occupy the base. Would they have to wait for the reinforcements to arrive and then directly attack Syria all over again?

Currently, it seemed impossible to launch another offensive against Syria. After all, the USA was currently fully committed to aiding an ongoing war and could not afford to commit a large number of troops to open a new battlefield. Otherwise, the USA would be directly embroiled in two wars, leading to severe shortages of both manpower and weaponry.

At that point, the impact on the USA's global troop deployment and weapon distribution would be significant, potentially even causing the collapse of the global military base system that the USA had worked so hard to establish. Such consequences were more than the USA could bear.

Moreover, how many troops would need to be committed to Syria? 100,000, 200,000, or 300,000? It was simply impossible to estimate. Given the Syrian army's current strength, at least 200,000 troops would be needed to gain an absolute advantage. Deploying 200,000 troops was not something that could be done in a short time.

There was also the question of whether it was worth it. In any case, Syria's economy had already been largely destroyed by the USA and its subordinate nations. Continuing to send more troops would yield no benefits, so why bother?

After the analysis by the Central Theater Command personnel, General Maitang quickly made a decision: they would withdraw from Syria. At most, they would continue to conduct non-stop airstrikes to interfere with the Syrian government's domestic rule and disrupt its stability.

Soon, a detailed report was sent to the USA military high command and the Department of Defense. Upon seeing the report from the Central Theater Command, the military high command could not make a decision immediately; they had to organize personnel to evaluate the impact on the USA.

If they withdrew from Syria now, it would mean the USA's military operations in Syria were a failure. It was difficult to judge how much of a negative impact this would have on the USA or if it would cause an unpredictable chain reaction.

Yet, the USA military high command also did not dare to decide to send a large number of troops to Syria. After all, drawing troops away from other regions could very likely lead to those regions spiraling out of control.

But if they didn't redeploy troops to Syria, there was no way to maintain the USA's position there. They would have to watch helplessly as the Syrian army occupied the Hera Joint Military Base and other locations, losing their final strongholds. This would also be a massive blow to the USA.

For a time, the USA military high command found it difficult to make a decision, conducting one evaluation after another. No new orders reached Lieutenant General Green. Consequently, Lieutenant General Green had to order his troops to prepare for defense while anxiously awaiting the arrival of new military orders.

Naturally, Lieutenant General Green hoped the USA military would send reinforcements to Syria, but he also knew that under the current circumstances, the possibility was slim. However, without orders from the Central Theater Command, Lieutenant General Green had no way to take the next step.

Major General Zaha was unaware of the USA's internal deliberations; he only knew that the USA had not sent reinforcements to Syria. The Hera Joint Military Base had not been reinforced in terms of its air force, and its land forces remained at their original deployment levels.

This situation was good news for Major General Zaha. If the USA had sent reinforcements, he would have had to reconsider whether to launch the attack on the Hera Joint Military Base immediately.

After a period of rest and reorganization, the manpower and weaponry of the 15 Mechanized Infantry Brigades and 3 Artillery Brigades had been largely replenished. However, the result of this replenishment was that 6 of the 10 Reserve Mechanized Infantry Brigades Major General Zaha had formed were broken up for parts. All available weaponry was distributed to the army, and he had secured a batch of armored vehicles from General Faraj.

If there were any more significant losses of armored vehicles, they would have to be drawn from troops on other fronts, as there were no more spare armored vehicles for timely replenishment. Such replenishment efficiency would naturally be greatly reduced, but there was no other choice.

Since the troops under Major General Zaha bore the heaviest combat missions, they could only rely on armored vehicles to achieve their desired results. Major General Zaha had anticipated this situation. Fortunately, they were now directly facing the USA's military base; as long as they could take it down, there wouldn't be many battles left in the future.

Major General Zaha attached great importance to the attack on the Hera Joint Military Base, deciding to use 8 Mechanized Infantry Brigades and 1 Artillery Brigade for the assault, while other units would be responsible for pinning down the remaining USA military bases.

After all, once the Hera Joint Military Base was captured, the other USA military bases would pose virtually no threat. At that time, they could easily eliminate the USA's final strongholds in Syria.

Under Major General Zaha's command, the various Mechanized Infantry Brigades began their intense movements, accelerating ammunition replenishment and personnel rest. They made the final preparations before combat, waiting only for the appointed time to launch the attack on the Hera Joint Military Base.

Lieutenant General Green also noticed the movements of the Syrian army. As the USA's largest military base in Syria, the Hera Joint Military Base could hardly escape the fate of being targeted by the Syrian forces. However, being targeted so quickly was something Lieutenant General Green found hard to accept.

Lieutenant General Green had no choice but to order the Opposition Armed Forces to send troops into the Hera Joint Military Base to assist in its defense. At the same time, he urged Turkey and Israel to launch immediate offensives, hoping to deter the Syrian army from acting rashly.